Best Beer City / Metro - 2022 Edition

[personone]

I've never heard of or though of NYC as a "beer city," TBH.

*Although it doesn't answer the question of this thread, if you extend this to wineries, Virginia (Northern Virginia and the surrounding region) has exploded in the last decade. Some of the most interesting and unique collection of wineries in the country, outside Napa. They were built on all the open land in that region, so the settings are beautiful too.

[Joakim3]

Originally Posted by Caesarstl

Not saying it's the best, but it took way too long to mention this one in a thread for beer nuts...

I'd honorably mention Pittsburgh or Baltimore as well

[Boston Shudra]

Found some cool data here: https://www.nbwa.org/resources/industry-fast-facts

If you scroll not quite halfway down the page, there's a count of brewery permits per state as of Dec 2020. I took those numbers and found the number of brewery permits per capita per state based on the 2020 census. Results below.

Brewery permits by state per 100,000 residents:
1) Vermont - 16.48
2) Maine - 14.46
3) Montana - 11.81
4) Oregon - 10.10
5) New Hampshire - 9.80
6) Colorado - 9.72
7) Alaska - 9.00
8) Wyoming - 8.84
9) Washington - 8.14
10) New Mexico - 7.13
11) South Dakota - 6.54
12) Idaho - 6.42
13) Wisconsin - 6.19
14) Michigan - 6.00
15) Minnesota - 5.01
16) Virginia - 4.87
17) Pennsylvania - 4.76
18) Delaware - 4.75
19) North Carolina - 4.70
20) Iowa - 4.67
21) Rhode Island - 4.65
22) Connecticut - 4.49
23) Massachusetts - 4.17
24) Ohio - 4.08
25) Indiana - 4.08
26) North Dakota - 3.98
27) Nebraska - 3.72
28) California - 3.71
29) Missouri - 3.44
30) New York - 3.30
31) Illinois - 3.16
32) Hawaii - 3.02
33) Maryland - 2.85
34) Tennessee - 2.84
35) Kansas - 2.65
36) Kentucky - 2.62
37) South Carolina - 2.56
38) Arizona - 2.38
39) Arkansas - 2.32
40) Florida - 2.32
41) Nevada - 2.29
42) Oklahoma - 2.22
43) New Jersey - 2.00
44) West Virginia - 1.95
45) Texas - 1.80
46) Georgia - 1.74
47) Utah - 1.65
48) Louisiana - 1.46
49) Alabama - 1.35
50) Mississippi - 0.84

I couldn't seem to follow the link they provided to the .gov site to confirm the numbers, so maybe take the numbers with a grain of salt. Less densely populated states have a leg up on breweries/capita, but the data doesn't track perfectly with population density either, which I find interesting.

[Craziaskowboi]

Originally Posted by Joakim3

I'd honorably mention Pittsburgh or Baltimore as well

The Penn Brewery was founded in 1986.

[mike0421]

Originally Posted by aliasfinn

St. Louis

I kept reading, and reading through this, thinking that cat wasn't going to be let out of the bag, but congratulations, you are the winner.

St. Louis is a big player. Really big.

[Mister68]

Chicago, here's my personal BIG 3:

Hop Butcher For The World - Chicago
Riverlands - St. Charles
Phase Three - Lake Zurich

Nobody cares about the always overhyped, and overrated Three Floyd's anymore! They have nothing to do with Chicago, they got buried by the breweries I listed. There are dozens here I can list that smoke 3F's gruel beer!

[mjtinmemphis]

Originally Posted by mike0421

I kept reading, and reading through this, thinking that cat wasn't going to be let out of the bag, but congratulations, you are the winner.

St. Louis is a big player. Really big.

I don't like beer but I keep hearing both locals and tourists say St. Louis is a good beer city.